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“Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence!—fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful thraldom!—fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty!” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · vivid
“I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North,—even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the Pilgrim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever allow him to be carried back into slavery,—law or no law, constitution or no constitution.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · observation
“No matter,” said Mr. O’Connell, “under what specious term it may disguise itself, slavery is still hideous. It has a natural, an inevitable tendency to brutalize every noble faculty of man.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“O, how accursed is that system, which entombs the godlike mind of man, defaces the divine image, reduces those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a level with four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above all that is called God!” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“Let it never be forgotten, that no slaveholder or overseer can be convicted of any outrage perpetrated on the person of a slave, however diabolical it may be, on the testimony of colored witnesses, whether bond or free.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · observation
“Go on, my dear friend, till you, and those who, like you, have been saved, so as by fire, from the dark prison-house, shall stereotype these free, illegal pulses into statutes; and New England, cutting loose from a blood-stained Union, shall glory in being the house of refuge for the oppressed,—” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · precept
“By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · observation
“For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · vivid
“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
“This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an Amer · insight
Douglass explains why he previously withheld details of his escape from slavery, citing risks to escape helpers and victims, but now says slavery’s abolition makes fuller disclosure safer.
Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Contents My Escape from Slavery Reconstruction Douglass, Frederick. “My Escape from Slavery.” The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131. My Escape from Slavery In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given the public what I considered very good …
In Maryland, free Black people had to carry frequently renewed “free papers,” which described appearance; Douglass describes how slaves could escape by borrowing papers, but he relied on a sailor’s protection instead.
good luck rather than bravery. My means of escape were provided for me by the very men who were making laws to hold and bind me more securely in slavery. It was the custom in the State of Maryland to require the free colored people to have what were called free papers. These instruments they were required to renew very often, and by charging a fee for this writing, considerable sums from time to time were collected …
Douglass finds work on the wharves, experiences Northern pay and autonomy, recounts a minor misunderstanding with the cost of cord, and contrasts Massachusetts labor with being owned or seized.
me that no slave-holder could take a slave out of New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their lives to save me from such a fate. The fifth day after my arrival, I put on the clothes of a common laborer, and went upon the wharves in search of work. On my way down Union street I saw a large pile of coal in front of the house of Rev. Ephraim Peabody, the Unitarian minister. I went to the kitchen doo…
Douglass argues the federal government cannot protect individuals in distant states without voters’ equal political power, and he insists only enfranchisement can make slavery’s return impossible.
consistent with itself, and give to every loyal citizen the elective franchise,—a right and power which will be ever present, and will form a wall of fire for his protection. One of the invaluable compensations of the late Rebellion is the highly instructive disclosure it made of the true source of danger to republican government. Whatever may be tolerated in monarchical and despotic governments, no republic is safe…
Within Sura IV’s marriage and family law, the text forbids inheriting wives against will, restricts remarriage and prohibited relatives, permits slave marriage with conditions, and mandates penalties for unlawful sex.
old sent we Noah and Abraham, and on their seed conferred the gift of prophecy, and the Book; and some of them we guided aright; but many were evil doers. Then we caused our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and we caused Jesus the son of Mary to follow them; and we gave him the Evangel,10 and we put into the hearts of those who followed him kindness and compassion: but as to the monastic life, they invented it…
Pepys begins dressing with coat and sword like other gentlemen, attends drums and dinners, hears of duels and court disputes, visits slaving stories from Algiers, watches theatre performances, and discusses preparations and rumors for the King’s marriage and Lent.
Alban's, and the Queen, and Ambassador Montagu, did way- lay them at their lodgings till the difference was made up, to my Lord's honour, who hath got great reputation thereby. 8th. Captn. Cuttle, and Curtis, and Mootham, and I, went to the Fleece Taverne to drink; and there we spent till four o'clock, telling stories of Algiers, and the manner of life of slaves there. And truly Captn. Mootham and Mr. Dawes (who h…
Pepys discusses Parliament and prisoner releases with Sir George Downing, reports that the King’s party hindered a bill for money with new proposals, and then hears that payments will follow earlier forms once money is raised.
wholly to the unpreparedness of the King's own party, to make their demand and choice; for they have obstructed the giving it by land-tax, which had been done long since. 28th. To White Hall; where, though it blows hard and rains hard, yet the Duke of York is gone a-hunting. We therefore lost our labour, and so to get things ready against dinner at home, and at noon comes my Lord Hinchingbroke, Sir Thomas Crewe, M…
Corinth takes Anactorium by treachery, sells Corcyraean slaves and keeps hostages, and Thucydides calls this the first cause of Corinth’s war against Athens; soon after, Athens imposes measures against revolting Potidaea.
the island. This was the first cause of the war that Corinth had against the Athenians, viz., that they had fought against them with the Corcyraeans in time of treaty. Almost immediately after this, fresh differences arose between the Athenians and Peloponnesians, and contributed their share to the war. Corinth was forming schemes for retaliation, and Athens suspected her hostility. The Potidæans, who inhabit the is…
After Ithome’s surrender, helots and suppliants are relocated to Naupactus; the Athenians absorb Megara, fight in Egypt under Inaros, and then conduct campaigns around Aegina, Megara, and Geraneia with shifting battle outcomes.
the attack of the remaining third, which is called White Castle. Within it were Persians and Medes who had taken refuge there, and Egyptians who had not joined the rebellion. Meanwhile the Athenians, making a descent from their fleet upon Haliae, were engaged by a force of Corinthians and Epidaurians; and the Corinthians were victorious. Afterwards the Athenians engaged the Peloponnesian fleet off Cecruphalia; and t…
Lacedaemonians campaign into Arcadia against Parrhasians and raze Cypsela’s fort, free Helots who served with Brasidas then later restore their franchise, while Delians are brought back and Pylos and treaty tensions continue.
truce, in spite of the prayers and reproaches of the Corinthians for their breach of faith; and these last had to content themselves with a de facto armistice with Athens. The same summer the Lacedaemonians marched into Arcadia with their whole levy under Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, king of Lacedaemon, against the Parrhasians, who were subjects of Mantinea, and a faction of whom had invited their aid. They also m…
Early charter chapters regulate inheritance and feudal dues: relief amounts, wardship rules, reasonable management of heirs’ lands, marriage without disparagement, widows’ dower and election rights, and debt treatment including debts to Jews.
6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, yet so that before the marriage takes place the nearest in blood to that heir shall have notice. 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance; nor shall she give anything for her dower, or for her marriage portion, or for the inheritance which her husband and she held on the day of the dea…
After a Phoenician betrays him into slavery in a voyage, Zeus destroys his ship, and the survivor clings to the mast, drifts for days, washes ashore in Thesprotia, and hears about Ulysses at Dodona.
that he might sell me as a slave and take the money I fetched. I suspected his intention, but went on board with him, for I could not help it. “The ship ran before a fresh North wind till we had reached the sea that lies between Crete and Libya; there, however, Jove counselled their destruction, for as soon as we were well out from Crete and could see nothing but sea and sky, he raised a black cloud over our ship an…
The swineherd warns Ulysses that approaching the Ithacan suitors will surely bring ruin, describing their wealth and servants, while Eumaeus explains Laertes and Ulysses’ dead wife and how servants survive by being treated kindly.
than I should—to put fresh wood on the fire, chop fuel, carve, cook, pour out wine, and do all those services that poor men have to do for their betters.” The swineherd was very much disturbed when he heard this. “Heaven help me,” he exclaimed, “what ever can have put such a notion as that into your head? If you go near the suitors you will be undone to a certainty, for their pride and insolence reach the very heave…
Eumaeus declines to answer immediately and instead tells his own abduction story, describing Syra’s fertility and painless deaths, then Phoenician traders who deceive, kidnap him, and leave him alone, eventually washed to Ithaca.
and pillaged, or did some enemies carry you off when you were alone tending sheep or cattle, ship you off here, and sell you for whatever your master gave them?” “Stranger,” replied Eumaeus, “as regards your question: sit still, make yourself comfortable, drink your wine, and listen to me. The nights are now at their longest; there is plenty of time both for sleeping and sitting up talking together; you ought not to…
Odysseus continues his story: after being taken to Phoenicia, he is clothed again, learns about Odysseus from the king, is sent on to Thesprotian ships to Dulichium, then escapes a planned enslavement in Ithaca by swimming away.
me to his house, foredone with toil and the keen air, till he came to his father’s palace. And he clothed me in a mantle and a doublet for raiment. “There I heard tidings of Odysseus, for the king told me that he had entertained him, and kindly entreated him on his way to his own country; and he showed me all the wealth that Odysseus had gathered, bronze and gold and well-wrought iron; yea it would suffice for his c…
Eumaeus recounts being sold from a deathless isle of Syria after Phoenician deception, and Odysseus responds that divine providence brought him to a kindly host.
their mistress and find out all eat and drink, and moreover to carry off somewhat with them to the field, such things as ever comfort the heart of a thrall.” And Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying: “Ah, Eumaeus, how far then didst thou wander from thine own country and thy parents while as yet thou wast but a child! But come, declare me this and plainly tell it all. Was a wide-wayed town of men taken and …
Eumaeus explains Argos’s former hunting strength and how slavery and distance from a master ruin servants, then Odysseus-in-disguise is seated by Telemachus, who orders him given bread and treated as a beggar.
certainly if he have speed with this beauty, or if he be comely only, like as are men’s trencher dogs that their lords keep for the pleasure of the eye.” Then didst thou make answer, swineherd Eumaeus: “In very truth this is the dog of a man that has died in a far land. If he were what once he was in limb and in the feats of the chase, when Odysseus left him to go to Troy, soon wouldst thou marvel at the sight of hi…
Philoetius tells Odysseus he is troubled by watching other men’s herds and waiting for Odysseus’s return; Odysseus vows the wooers will be slain, and meanwhile the wooers plot harm to Telemachus.
So he spake, and came close to him offering his right hand in welcome, and uttering his voice spake to him winged words: “Father and stranger, hail! may happiness be thine in the time to come; but as now, thou art fast holden in many sorrows! Father Zeus, none other god is more baneful than thou; thou hast no compassion on men, that are of thine own begetting, but makest them to have fellowship with evil and with bi…
Du Bois introduces his historical study of 1861–1872 and recounts early Civil War policy toward escaped slaves, comparing actions by Ben Butler, John C. Frémont, and Halleck, and describing how fugitives created a crisis.
Butler’s “contrabands” were welcomed as military laborers. This complicated rather than solved the problem, for now the scattering fugitives became a steady stream, which flowed faster as the armies marched. Then the long-headed man with care-chiselled face who sat in the White House saw the inevitable, and emancipated the slaves of rebels on New Year’s, 1863. A month later Congress called earnestly for the Negro so…
Du Bois summarizes legislative and administrative attempts to manage freedpeople, including failed bills for a Bureau of Emancipation and the eventual creation of a Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in 1865 under the War Department.
bordering the St. John’s River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of Negroes now made free by act of war.” So read the celebrated “Field-order Number Fifteen.” All these experiments, orders, and systems were bound to attract and perplex the government and the nation. Directly after the Emancipation Proclamation, Representative Eliot had introduced a bill creating a Bureau of Emancipation; but it…
Du Bois characterizes the Freedmen’s Bureau’s mission and evaluates its administration as a nationwide system of officials, courts, and labor oversight, while describing racial conflict through vivid figures from the period.
the government, the carpet-bagger, and the slave, here; and there, all the South that was white, whether gentleman or vagabond, honest man or rascal, lawless murderer or martyr to duty. Thus it is doubly difficult to write of this period calmly, so intense was the feeling, so mighty the human passions that swayed and blinded men. Amid it all, two figures ever stand to typify that day to coming ages,—the one, a gray-…
Du Bois traces African American responses from before 1750 through the slave revolts of 1800, 1822, and 1831, the rise of the African Church in northern cities, and the later emergence of abolitionists and leaders like Frederick Douglass.
the earnest songs of Phyllis, in the martyrdom of Attucks, the fighting of Salem and Poor, the intellectual accomplishments of Banneker and Derham, and the political demands of the Cuffes. Stern financial and social stress after the war cooled much of the previous humanitarian ardor. The disappointment and impatience of the Negroes at the persistence of slavery and serfdom voiced itself in two movements. The slaves …
Du Bois argues that three streams of thought—from global cooperation, the older Southern belief in Negro inferiority, and black Americans’ demands for liberty—create a tangle that Education must solve by using labor without oppression.
founding the common school on the university, and the industrial school on the common school; and weaving thus a system, not a distortion, and bringing a birth, not an abortion. When night falls on the City of a Hundred Hills, a wind gathers itself from the seas and comes murmuring westward. And at its bidding, the smoke of the drowsy factories sweeps down upon the mighty city and covers it like a pall, while yonder…
Returning from an unsettling stop at the Waters-Loring plantation, Du Bois lyrically describes Dougherty’s swamps and slave history, including Osceola’s uprising with Creeks and the expansion of the richest slave kingdom by 1860.
let houses and furniture and machinery rust and rot. So the Waters-Loring plantation was stilled by the spell of dishonesty, and stands like some gaunt rebuke to a scarred land. Somehow that plantation ended our day’s journey; for I could not shake off the influence of that silent scene. Back toward town we glided, past the straight and thread-like pines, past a dark tree-dotted pond where the air was heavy with a d…
Du Bois presents Dougherty County as a place of sharp contrasts—racial hierarchy, sexual exploitation, debt, prisons, and forced labor—then describes Jewish and New England financial control and occasional Black self-advancement under debt.
came the revolution of war and Emancipation, the bewilderment of Reconstruction,—and now, what is the Egypt of the Confederacy, and what meaning has it for the nation’s weal or woe? It is a land of rapid contrasts and of curiously mingled hope and pain. Here sits a pretty blue-eyed quadroon hiding her bare feet; she was married only last week, and yonder in the field is her dark young husband, hoeing to support her,…
Du Bois explains why cabins stay poor and crowded—legacy of slavery, low demands shaped by habit, landlords’ failure to invest, and the labor incentives produced by tenancy—then describes how labor and economics break family groups.
a cabin kept scrupulously neat, with merry steaming fireplaces and hospitable door; but the majority are dirty and dilapidated, smelling of eating and sleeping, poorly ventilated, and anything but homes. Above all, the cabins are crowded. We have come to associate crowding with homes in cities almost exclusively. This is primarily because we have so little accurate knowledge of country life. Here in Dougherty County…
He argues that postponed marriage, sexual separation and desertion, and “easy marriage and easy separation” stem from slavery-era practices of unlicensed unions, noting the Negro church’s partial role but claiming only improved living standards can fully cure it.
to town or tries other labor; as a tenant-farmer his outlook is almost hopeless, and following it as a makeshift, he takes the house that is given him without protest. In such homes, then, these Negro peasants live. The families are both small and large; there are many single tenants,—widows and bachelors, and remnants of broken groups. The system of labor and the size of the houses both tend to the breaking up of f…
Du Bois asks who is to blame for widespread tenant debt and claims some merchants and employers believe only “slavery of debt” keeps Black labor working, leading to insecurity, crime, and peonage.
majority of tenants end the year even, or in debt, which means that they work for board and clothes. Such an economic organization is radically wrong. Whose is the blame? The underlying causes of this situation are complicated but discernible. And one of the chief, outside the carelessness of the nation in letting the slave start with nothing, is the widespread opinion among the merchants and employers of the Black …
Du Bois argues that Southern segregation by color is not the same as social-class clustering, so whites and blacks usually encounter each other’s worst traits, unlike slavery’s patriarchal contact, which shaped beliefs about freedom and race interests.
colors meet in close proximity. Even in the country something of this segregation is manifest in the smaller areas, and of course in the larger phenomena of the Black Belt. All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities. A Negro slum may be in dangerous proximity to a white residence quarter, while it is quite common to find a white slum pla…
Genesis 9 blesses Noah and establishes animal and human food permissions with a prohibition against eating blood, then describes God’s covenant sign: God’s ‘bow in the clouds,’ and Noah’s drunken episode with Canaan.
And God blessed Noe and his sons, and said unto them: Increase and multiply and fill the earth. The fear also and dread of yow be upon all beasts of the earth, and upon all fowls of the air, and upon all that creepeth on the earth, and upon all fishes of the sea, which are given unto your hands. And all that moveth upon the earth having life, shall be your meat: Even as the green herbs, so give I yow all things. Only…
With Joseph dead, a new Pharaoh enslaves Israel, orders harsh brick-and-field labor and building treasure cities (Phithom and Raamses), and commands Hebrew midwives to kill boys but spare girls.
These are the names of the children of Israel, which came to Egypt with Iacob, every man with his household: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Iuda, Isachar, Zabulon, Ben Iamin, Dan, Nephtali, Gad and Aser. All the souls that came out of the loins of Iacob, were seventy, and Ioseph was in Egypt already. When Ioseph was dead and all his brethren and all that generation: the children of Israel grew, increased, multiplied and waxed …
Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh to release Israel, but Pharaoh increases their workload by removing straw supplies, causing Israelite officers to be beaten and complain, while Moses appeals to the LORD about cruel bondage.
Then Moses and Aaron went and told Pharao, thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel. Let my people go, that they may keep holy day unto me in the wilderness. And Pharao answered: what fellow is the LORD, that I should hear his voice for to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will let Israel go. And they said: the God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go (we pray thee) three days' journey into the desert, that…
Israel departs Egypt from Rameses to Sucoth after 430 years, observing Passover with rules excluding strangers and uncircumcised people and forbidding breaking bones or carrying flesh outside.
and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the LORD gat the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and so they borrowed and robbed the Egyptians. Thus took the children of Israel their journey from Rameses to Sucoth six hundred thousand men of foot, beside children. And much common people went also with them, and sheep, and oxen, and cattle exceeding much. And they…
Laws regulate Hebrew servants’ freedom, penalties for violence and injury, compensation and “life for life” restitution, and rules governing animals, wells, and personal negligence.
These are the laws which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy a servant that is an Hebrew, six years he shall serve, and the seventh he shall go out free paying nothing. If he came alone, he shall go out alone: If he came married, his wife shall go out with him. And if his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons or daughters: then the wife and her children shall be her master's and he shall go out…
The firstborn males are numbered, the Levites are taken in place of them, and extra firstborn are redeemed with five shekels per person, with the redemption money given to Aaron.
And all the firstborn males, in the sum of names, from a month old and above, were numbered twenty two thousand two hundred and seventy three. And the LORD spake unto Moses saying: take the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites for their cattle: and the Levites shall be mine which am the LORD. And for the redeeming of the two hundred and seventy three which are more th…
Regulations follow for redeeming firstborn humans and unclean beasts, denying inheritance to Aaron because God is his inheritance, and giving the Levites tithes plus a tenth of the tithe for the LORD.
Neverthelater the firstborn of man shall be redeemed, and the firstborn of unclean beasts shall be redeemed. And their redemptions shall be at a month old, valued at five sicles of silver, of the holy sicle. A sicle maketh twenty Geras. But the firstborn of oxen, sheep and goats shall not be redeemed. For they are holy, and thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat to be a sacrifice of …
It establishes the seventh-year “free year” (remission of debts to Israelites, cancellation so no beggar remains), regulates Hebrew indentured service to six years with release and gifts, and repeats firstborn consecration with restrictions on offering defective animals and eating blood.
At the end of seven years thou shalt make a free year. And this is the manner of the free year, whosoever lendeth ought with his hand unto his neighbour, may not ask again that which he hath lent, of his neighbour or of his brother: because it is called the LORD's {lordes} free year, yet of a stranger thou mayst call it home again. But that which thou hast with thy brother thine hand shall remit, and that in any wise…
It adds that Israel will be brought back to Egypt by ships, sold to enemies as slaves and slavewomen, and yet receive no buyers to redeem them.
And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way which I bade thee that thou shouldst see it no more. And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies, for bondmen and bondwomen: and yet no man shall buy you.
Paul, writing to Philemon, urges him to receive Onesimus as a beloved brother, explains Paul’s personal interest and bondage, and ends with a list of greetings sent from Rome.
Grace be with you and peace, from God our father, and from the lord Iesus Christ. I thank my God always making mention always of thee in my prayers, when I hear of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the lord Iesu, and toward all saints: so that the fellowship that thou hast in the faith is fruitful thorow knowledge of all good things, which are in you by Iesus Christ. And we have great joy and consolation ov…
Livy describes Hannibal’s response: he circulates captive mountaineers in fetters for combat, casts lots for who will fight for freedom, and then addresses his own troops by likening their situation to being trapped by seas and the Po with no escape except victory.
Rome now anxiously regard our efforts; and that according as our strength and valour shall be, such henceforward will be the fortune of that city and of the Roman empire." 42. Thus the consul addressed the Romans. Hannibal, thinking that his soldiers ought to be roused by deeds rather than by words, having drawn his army around for the spectacle, placed in their midst the captive mountaineers in fetters; and after G…
Scipio convenes Spanish hostages, sends them home with Roman protection, and responds to a motherly appeal for strict care of noble captive women, emphasizing Roman discipline and respect for matrons.
iron, sails, spartum, and other naval materials, of use in equipping a fleet; so that amid such large military stores which were captured, Carthage itself was of the least consideration. 48. Having ordered Caius Laelius with the marines to guard the city, Scipio led back his legions to the camp the same day in person; and as his soldiers were tired, as they had in one day gone through every kind of military labour; …
Carthaginians make the first tribute payment to Rome, hostages are partly restored, Norba hostages are allowed to move, and Roman magistrates manage colonist disputes for Narnia and Cossa.
before the senate, and, in pursuance of their answer, the people were ordered by proclamation to perform a supplication for one day, and worship was solemnized at all the shrines. 2. This year, the Carthaginians brought to Rome the first payment of the silver imposed on them as a tribute; and the quaestors having reported, that it was not of the proper standard, and that, on the assay, it wanted a fourth part, they …
In Italy, a slave conspiracy nearly turns Etruria hostile; Manius Acilius suppresses it by killing, scouring, and crucifying ringleaders, while Marcellus fights the Boians and Insubrians around the Po, Comum, and nearby campaigns, leading to Rome’s supplications and a planned triumph.
so as to determine, whether the successful battle obliterated the disgrace of the defeat, or whether the victory obtained at Comum was tarnished by the disaster incurred among the Boii. 37. Soon after those matters had passed with such variety of fortune, Lucius Furius Purpureo, the other consul, came into the country of the Boians, through the Sappinian tribe. He proceeded almost to the fort of Mutilus, when, begin…
After Bergistani forts revolt and are subdued, the Romans sell the rebels at auction instead of treating them mildly again, to prevent future disturbances.
They were again subdued; but, on this second reduction, met not the same mild treatment; they were all sold by auction, that they might not any oftener disturb the peace. 17. In the mean time, the praetor, Publius Manlius, having received the army from Quintius Minucius, whom he had succeeded, and joined to it the old army of Appius Claudius Nero, from Farther Spain, marched into Turditania. Of all the Spaniards, th…
Wendell Phillips describes meeting Frederick Douglass at an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket and portrays Douglass’s speech as profoundly eloquent and anti-slavery, prompting unanimous northern resolve to protect him.
APPENDIX A PARODY PREFACE In the month of August, 1841, I attended an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with *Frederick Douglass*, the writer of the following Narrative. He was a stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage, and feeling his curiosity excited to ascertain the princ…
Phillips recounts the convention reaction to Douglass, compares his liberty speech to Patrick Henry, and explains Douglass’s subsequent work as a lecturing agent under the Massachusetts or American Anti-Slavery Society.
the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless! A beloved friend from New Bedford prevailed on Mr. DOUGLASS to address the convention. He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensitive mind in such a novel position. After apologizing for his ignoranc…
Phillips praises Douglass’s Christian and public service, contrasts slave advocates with fugitives, argues slavery degrades humanity, and supports his claims with an anecdote attributed to Daniel O’Connell from March 31, 1845.
May he continue to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God,” that he may be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, whether at home or abroad! It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one of the most efficient advocates of the slave population, now before the public, is a fugitive slave, in the person of *Frederick Douglass*; and that the free colored population of the United States are a…
Phillips argues Douglass chose to write his own narrative truthfully, claims its facts are essentially credible, and depicts slavery as a common, not exceptional, system of mental and physical degradation.
to have been an extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least that the white slave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as the black one. *Mr. Douglass* has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in his own style, and according to the best of his ability, rather than to employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; and, considering how long and dark was the caree…
Phillips highlights Douglass’s Chesapeake Bay reflections as the narrative’s most moving passage, denounces slavery as entombing the mind and reducing people to beasts, and attacks skepticism that excuses slavery’s atrocities.
perils he encountered in his endeavors to escape from his horrible doom! and how signal have been his deliverance and preservation in the midst of a nation of pitiless enemies! This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power; but I think the most thrilling one of them all is the description *Douglass* gives of his feelings, as he stood soliloquizing respecting his fate, a…
Phillips insists Douglass names people and places so his stories can be disproved, describes two cases of murderous cruelty with no legal investigation, and claims slave law blocks colored testimony against whites.
body and soul, and the names also of those who committed the crimes which he has alleged against them. His statements, therefore, may easily be disproved, if they are untrue. In the course of his Narrative, he relates two instances of murderous cruelty,—in one of which a planter deliberately shot a slave belonging to a neighboring plantation, who had unintentionally gotten within his lordly domain in quest of fish; …
In a letter dated April 22, 1845, Wendell Phillips says “lions write history,” argues for judging emancipation beyond slaveholder claims, and warns that naming origins as a fugitive remains dangerous everywhere under U.S. law.
BOSTON, *April* 22, 1845. My Dear Friend: You remember the old fable of “The Man and the Lion,” where the lion complained that he should not be so misrepresented “when the lions wrote history.” I am glad the time has come when the “lions write history.” We have been left long enough to gather the character of slavery from the involuntary evidence of the masters. One might, indeed, rest sufficiently satisfied with …
Phillips continues his appeal, comparing rights in Massachusetts with bondage in the South, urging protection for Douglass, criticizing laws and Constitution as lacking safeguards, and imagining New England becoming a true refuge for the oppressed.
they labor south of Mason and Dixon’s line. Tell us whether, after all, the half-free colored man of Massachusetts is worse off than the pampered slave of the rice swamps! In reading your life, no one can say that we have unfairly picked out some rare specimens of cruelty. We know that the bitter drops, which even you have drained from the cup, are no incidental aggravations, no individual ills, but such as must min…
A biographical note states Frederick Douglass was born enslaved as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland (1817/1818), escaped in 1838, married Anna Murray, changed his name, and later worked for emancipation and U.S.-Haiti affairs.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Frederick Douglass was born in slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of the exact year of his birth, but he knew that it was 1817 or 1818. As a young boy he was sent to Baltimore, to be a house servant, where he learned to read and write, with the assistance of his master’s wife. In 1838 he escaped from slavery and went to New York…
Frederick Douglass explains his uncertain age in Maryland, the deliberate slave ignorance of birthdays, his mother Harriet Bailey’s background, and his mother’s early separation from him by custom.
I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a…
Douglass describes his mother Harriet Bailey’s brief night visits from a farm near Lee’s Mill, the whipping system enforcing work at sunrise, her death when he was about seven, and the denial of knowledge of his father.
to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result. I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her jou…
Douglass argues that slaveholding laws make children of enslaved women follow their mothers’ condition, sustaining master-father dynamics, increasing suffering for mixed-race enslaved people, and he introduces his first master Anthony and overseer Plummer.
word of disapproval, it is set down to his parental partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse, both for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend. Every year brings with it multitudes of this class of slaves. It was doubtless in consequence of a knowledge of this fact, that one great statesman of the south predicted the downfall of slavery by the inevitable laws of population. Whether this prophecy …
Douglass recalls the first public whipping he witnessed: his aunt Hester disobeys Colonel Lloyd’s orders and is stripped and whipped by Captain Anthony, with Douglass terrified that it will be his turn next.
hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it. This occurrence took place very soon after I went to live with my old master, and under the following circumstances. Aunt Hester went out one night,—where or for what I do not know,—and happened to be absent when my master desired her presence. He had ordered her n…
Douglass describes Colonel Edward Lloyd’s plantation system: administrators, farms and overseers, the sloop Sally Lloyd for shipping to Baltimore, monthly food and yearly clothing rations, and the severe deprivation of enslaved children.
My master’s family consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; one daughter, Lucretia, and her husband, Captain Thomas Auld. They lived in one house, upon the home plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd. My master was Colonel Lloyd’s clerk and superintendent. He was what might be called the overseer of the overseers. I spent two years of childhood on this plantation in my old master’s family. It was here that I witnessed …
Douglass explains how enslaved people sleep on cold damp floors with coarse blankets, rise at the driver’s horn to begin field labor, and how overseer Severe’s cruelty and profanity enforce control.
failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all seasons of the year. There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, and none but the men and women had these. This, however, is not considered a very great privation. They find less difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want o…
Douglass depicts Colonel Lloyd’s “Great House Farm” as a self-contained industrial village and explains how enslaved people treat selection for errands there as a coveted privilege, with songs expressing joy and sorrow.
Severe. His course was characterized by no extraordinary demonstrations of cruelty. He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. He was called by the slaves a good overseer. The home plantation of Colonel Lloyd wore the appearance of a country village. All the mechanical operations for all the farms were performed here. The shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing, cartwrighting, coopering, weaving, and grain-…